Generally, a front vehicle body is disposed at a front portion based on the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and includes a frame structure that forms an engine compartment. The front vehicle body includes a front end module which forms a front end of the engine compartment and a cooling module, a head lamp, etc., are installed therein. A front fender apron member forms both the left and right sides of the engine compartment and provides a space where a suspension system is disposed and wheels are installed. A dash panel is disposed behind the engine compartment and partitions a passenger compartment from the engine compartment.
Additionally, a front side member extending in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle is disposed under the engine compartment in left and right directions in a widthwise direction of a vehicle to provide reinforcement to the structural strength of the front vehicle body. A sub-frame for supporting an engine and a transmission installed in the engine compartment and a suspension system is disposed at the lower portion of the front side member in the height direction of the vehicle.
The front end portion of the front side member is mounted on a bumper beam extended in the width direction of a vehicle to improve the front collision performance. The bumper beam is connected with the front end portion in the length direction of the vehicle through a crash box.
In particular, when a vehicle having a front vehicle body with the above structure collides head-on with small overlap with a collision object such as an obstacle or another vehicle during operation, (e.g., when a collision object such as a small overlap barrier deviated to one side along the width direction of the vehicle and collides with the outside portion of the vehicle body) the collision object displaces the front side member to collide with the weak outer portion of the vehicle body. Accordingly, the vehicle does not effectively perform during a front small-overlap collision and the passenger safety is compromised and excessive collision damage of the vehicle body occurs.
In order to solve the above-described deficiencies, reinforcing the outer portion of a vehicle body to cope with a small overlap collision has been proposed.
For example, a structure having a front end portion of a front fender apron member extends to a front end portion of a front side member and connected to each other by a connecting member, a structure having a reinforcement member for preventing infiltration of a collision object is mounted on the outside of a front side member, or a structure for reinforcing a front pillar or a side sill have been proposed. However, the proposed structures have the drawbacks that include excessive increase in the weight and cost of the vehicle body and insufficient protection of the passenger during the small overlap collision.
On the other hand, in the case of the electric vehicle, since the large capacity battery is mounted on the floor panel of the vehicle body, the vehicle body reinforcement due to the large capacity battery is structurally proposed, thereby failing to effectively cope with frontal collision and forward small overlap collision.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention, and therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.